Urban Areas Rent Control Act: Tenants continue to get a raw deal!

GUWAHATI: People staying on rents in urban areas in Assam, especially in Guwahati, continue to get a raw deal from a section of house/flat owners on rates of rent and facilities, besides other terms and conditions. This is despite the fact that the Assam Urban Areas Rent Control Act, 1972 clearly spelling out all do’s and don’ts for both the parties.

Guwahati, the gateway to the Northeast, is essentially an educational hub, besides being a destination for job seekers and those already established with jobs. Students and others rushing to the State capital generally stay on rented houses. They are, as often as not, subjected to get a raw deal from their house owners who defy the existing rent control Act at their own convenience.

Many of such house owners hike rents frequently at their own whims in sheer violation of the relevant Act and without giving the required facilities to the tenants. Sometimes, tenants are forced to vacate their rented houses or rooms without giving them adequate time through prior notices, thereby violating the Act. It seems that house owners take the advantage of the laxity on the part of the administration in enforcing the Assam Urban Areas Rent Control Act, 1972.

The Act spells it out as to how the rent of a house be fixed. It also says that a house owner cannot hike rent within five years of giving the house on rent. It also spells it out in clear terms as to how the rent of a house is to be hiked after five years. However, there are few takers of the Act among the house owners.

The Act says: “If at any time after five years from the date on which a house is in continuous occupation of a tenant, the market price of the land and estimated cost of construction of the house increases by more than twenty-five per cent on the basis of the value of land and cost of construction of the house on the date of preceding fixation of fair rent, then the landlord shall be entitled to have monthly rent increased by an amount not exceeding one-twelfth of the seven and half per cent of the increase in the market price of land and cost of construction, on the date of preceding fixation of fair rent from the date as may be prescribed subject to a maximum of fifty per cent of the preceding standard rent:

provided that subsequently after lapse of every five years of the revision of fair rent, if the market price of land and the estimated cost of construction of house increases by more than twenty-five per cent on the basis of market value of land and the estimated cost of construction of house on the date of preceding revision of fair rent, then the landlord shall be entitled to have monthly rent increased by an amount not exceeding one-twelfth of the seven and half per cent of the additional increase in the market value of land and the estimated cost of construction of house on the date of preceding revision of fair rent, from the date as may be prescribed subject to a maximum of fifty per cent of the revised fair rent.”

What is seen in the State is that the Assam Urban Areas Rent Control Act, 1972 has not been enforced by the administration in full. Such a lapse on the part of the administration leaves enough scopes for house owners to set rules on their own for their tenants to follow. Is it not imperative on the part of Dispur to enforce the Act in full?